Bootee Cathrine's house Marker 5.

Lyngby

The builders were two citizens of Copenhagen called Larsen and Wulffsen. They had also owned the old house and they kept the new estate until 1812. The house was used for permanent habitation later in the 19th century. From 1878 to 1935 it was owned by two generations of thatchers from which it got the name "Thatcher's house."

The name "Bootee-Cathrine's house" is a later addition. Her name was actually Anne Cathrine Benthagen and she lived from 1745 to 1805. Her unmarried mother sewed boots that the girl took out to customers so she became nicknamed Bootee-Cathrine. She met King Christian VII in 1767 and became part of the mad king's entourage. She was tall and beautiful and often wore men's clothing. The king was very fond of her, but the Government managed to have her removed and imprisoned in Hamburg until 1770. She did not return to Denmark before she died in 1805.

The house in Lyngby was built three years after Bootee-Cathrine died, so she never saw it. There is no reason to believe that she had anything to do with the previous house either. She was part of the group around Christian VII in Copenhagen and had no reason to live in Lyngby. Sorgenfri Castle was privately owned until it was purchased by the king's half-brother, Crown Prince Frederik, in 1789. Christian VII visited Sorgenfri, where he carved their names into the bark of one of the park's trees in 1774. This was his only known visit to the castle and by then Bootee-Cathrine was long since out of the country. There is, therefore, no reason to believe that the house name has any connection to Sorgenfri.

Why the house is called Bootee-Cathrine's House is therefore a mystery, but maybe a later occupant of the house might also have been nicknamed Bootee-Cathrine?

The small, yellow, half-timbered houses on the other side of Gammel Lundtoftevej (Old Lundtofte Road) (e,g. No. 36) were also mentioned after the fire in 1808. It is a type of house that is more characteristic of the northern part of Bondebyen; small houses originally with two symmetrical apartments and one large chimney in the middle. These two-family houses, many of which have now been converted to contain only one apartment, are found in large numbers in Bondebyen. At the time they were built, they were designed to save on materials. The stones for the foundations were cheap and so was the clay used in the walls and the thatch for the roofs. The wood for the timber-work was expensive, but most expensive of all were the bricks - real bricks - which the fire authorities insisted be used for the fireplace and the chimney. So the houses were constructed as two-family houses with a shared kitchen in the middle so that the chimney could be shared by the two fireplaces.

The half-timbered structure is different from house to house. In the house at 10 Nørregade (North Street) at the corner of Lyngby Stræde (Street), the upright timbers stand directly on the foundation stones whose surface is inclined outwardly to let rain water drain away. The ceiling beams are combed into the side of the uprights ("glam runner beams").This structure reveals that the house dates from the 18th century and is thus older than most houses in the neighborhood. At 36 Gammel Lundtoftevej, built in 1808, the half-timbers are anchored in a horizontal beam placed on top of the foundation stones. There is also a horizontal beam at the top of the wall (wall top). The ceiling beams rest on the top beam, which gives greater headroom in the house than the older glam shaped timber construction.

The neighbouring house at no. 29 looks impressive. It went through a very thorough restoration in 1924. The builder who restored the house also restored many other houses in the area and was nicknamed "Palace-Møller", because he converted humble houses into palaces.

Marker 6